6 things to know as Roe v. Wade turns 40

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe in the 1973 court case, left, and her attorney Gloria Allred hold hands as they leave the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC., Wednesday, April 26, 1989 after sitting in while the court listened to arguments in a Missouri abortion case. The court's decision may overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade case which legalized abortion. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Few Supreme Court cases have been as controversial as Roe v. Wade. Decided by a 7-2 margin in 1973, the case held that women had the right to an abortion under the Constitution.

Here are six things you should know to better understand Roe v. Wade on its 40th anniversary.

Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal in most states.

When the case was decided, four states had legalized abortion in nearly all cases before the fetus was viable: Alaska, Hawaii, Washington state and New York. Fourteen other states, mostly along the east and west coasts, had liberalized their laws somewhat. But most states outlawed abortion in nearly all cases with exceptions for the life and health of the mother.

The debate over abortion began long before the court case.

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(AP Photo/Desiree Hunter)

In their book “Before Roe v. Wade,” longtime Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse and Yale Law professor Reva Siegel note that the move to relax state restrictions on abortion started with doctors and lawyers groups such as the American Law Institute, groups that at the time were male-dominated and apolitical.

The decision in Roe v. Wade was broad and sweeping.

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(Reuters/Larry Downing)

By finding a constitutional right to abortion, the Supreme Court cast doubt on all kinds of restrictions. Even liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing before she joined the court, argued in a 1984 essay that the decision may have provoked a backlash. “Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict,” she wrote.

In recent years, the court has restricted the scope of the decision.

In 1992, the court decided in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that states could require women seeking an abortion to have a waiting period, minors seeking an abortion to get parental consent and doctors performing abortions to notify patients about possible health risks. Most of the political debate over abortion now focuses on these and other restrictions.

The number of abortion providers is decreasing.

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(AP Photo/Larry W. Smith)

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit agency that studies abortions and reproductive issues, the number of abortion providers has steadily gone down. In 1982, there were 2,908, while in 2008 there were 1,793, fewer than there were in 1974, the year after the case was decided.